Ryu's Noodle Bar

If you are looking for a great Japanese ramen noodle restaurant in the downtown area and you don't know where to go, then look no further than Ryu's Noodle Bar on Baldwin Street.  The restaurant itself has been around for a while and every time we go there, there is of course long line ups all the way out the door.  This time we went around 5:30 at night, just before everyone got off work and were practically the only people in the restaurant.

I asked the waitress what was one of the better noodles at the restaurant and she highly recommended the Pork Blaster ($15.50) which consisted of a pork bone soup base (my choice, one half boiled egg and about a half dozen pieces of pork meat.

Pork Blaster

The waitress recommended a couple of sauces for the pork meat which I selected the challot oil as one and the satay sauce as the other.  The pork meat itself were half lean, half fatty which was just the way I liked it.  The rather large pieces of pork certainly showed that the chefs had no intentions of holding back and cheaping out on the customer.  The noodles were pretty firm and lengthy and there were plenty of it in the bowl.  The only mistake I made and I don't think that I could fault the chefs for it was that I had ordered a pork bone as my soup base.  The pork itself had some fat in it and the the pork bone soup was already over saturated with pork flavor, so the combination of the two made the soup even more thick and salty and tad too meaty to slurp on its own.  Trying to have the noodles, the meat and some soup all on the spoon and to chug it all at once almost had a pork meat overkill tone to it.  A spicy soup base or a miso soup base might have been a better choice.

Despite that, the meal was perfect for a hungry stomach.  One bowl of this pork blaster and I was super full after the meal.  If one is planning to go, either go early or be prepared to stand in line and wait for a while.  In the summer time, there is an outdoor patio where one could enjoy their meal outdoors if they so wish.  There is also limited paid parking on the street as well so again go early if you can.  Overall I give it a 4.25 out of 5.

Ryu's Noodle Bar
33 Baldwin Street
Toronto, Ontario

647-344-9306